KOCE Drive Gains $108,827 in Pledges

The recession has apparently sidestepped KOCE Channel 50, the Huntington Beach-based public television station. An 11-day, on-air fund drive that ended Sunday received pledges of $108,827 from 1,577 viewers--almost twice the amount raised during a nine-day drive last year, according to Gail Bartosik, the station’s director of viewer services.

Part of the money raised in this year’s drive is being matched by a $100,000 grant from the Newport Beach-based Harry and Grace Steele Foundation.

Earlier this week, the Corp. for Public Broadcasting in Washington announced its annual community service grants, including $739,234 for KOCE. Thirteen public stations in California received grants from the private, nonprofit corporation, which is authorized by Congress to promote growth and development in public broadcasting.

In other local broadcast news, KDOC Channel 56 in Anaheim has been notified that its half-hour evening news program, “OC Newswatch,” is one of three nominees for the 1990 “Golden Mike” for best half-hour newscast in Southern California for operations with fewer than 29 full-time staff members.

At present, “OC Newswatch” has two anchors, two reporters, two photographers and an assignment editor. The low-budget program, the county’s only locally produced nightly broadcast news, has had four different time slots since it premiered in February, 1989. Now appearing at 5:30 p.m., it will move to a fifth slot, 5 p.m., on Dec. 26, according to station spokesman Hoshang Moaddeli.

The awards, sponsored by the Radio and Television News Assn., will be announced Jan. 18 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The other nominees are KMEX-TV, a Spanish-language station in Los Angeles, and KSBY-TV in San Luis Obispo.